Happy Trails
by Zanza8
Summary: So why didn't Nolan want Irisa drinking in the pilot episode? Set in no particular time during the first season, this is an answer to that question.
1. Chapter 1

Doc Yewll flexed the patient's ankle and he flinched. "Hold still."

"I might hold still better if you were a little more gentle," Nolan retorted. "Haven't you ever heard of a bedside manner?"

"Heard of it." She straightened up. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is your ankle isn't broken."

Nolan cradled his foot. "And the bad news?"

"You have a sprain." She turned to Irisa. "Take your father home and wrap up his ankle. He needs to rest."

"For how long?" asked the Irathient.

Yewll shrugged. "Impossible to say."

"What?" Incredulity mixed with indignation in equal measure in Nolan's voice. "What kind of a doctor are you?"

"The kind who knows you _ aren't_ going to rest, so your ankle is going to take longer to heal than it should. Now get out. My office is for sick people."

"Come on, Nolan." Irisa stepped forward and helped the Lawkeeper off the table, then wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled one of his arms over her shoulder. Leaning heavily on his daughter, he started out of the office.

"I'll be by to check on you tomorrow," Yewll called after them. "We'll see if for once somebody is willing to follow my advice."


	2. Chapter 2

Nolan glumly regarded Irisa's handiwork as she finished wrapping his ankle, then gingerly got to his feet, only to be pushed back into the chair.

"What do you think you're doing?" The Irathient glowered at her father.

"Just going downstairs to my office." Irisa's face set like stone and Nolan tried his most engaging smile. "Come on, kiddo. It can't hurt just to sit around the office."

The girl pulled up another chair and threw a pillow on it, then grabbed Nolan's leg and propped his foot up, ignoring his yelp of discomfort. "Doc Yewll said you had to rest so you're going to rest."

"But…"

"No! If you wanted to work today you should have been watching where you were going."

Nolan sighed. It had started as a typical day-strolling around town with his daughter until some guy grabbed a hailer off a stall in the marketplace and they gave chase. Everything was routine until a Castithan woman pushing a cart got in his way. He'd managed to dodge the woman but got tangled up in the cart and found himself flat on his back with a sharp pain in his ankle. "I was watching where I was going. I just zigged when I should have zagged."

"Well, now you can just sit," said Irisa forbiddingly, "unless you want to go to bed. It's not like I can't handle things."

Their eyes locked in a formidable impasse until there was a knock on the door and Tommy poked his head into the room. "Am I interrupting?"

"Nope," said Nolan briskly. "What is it?"

"Trouble at the mines. Seems a bobcat attacked a man."

"A _bobcat_?" Nolan cast his mind back over the bobcats he had seen at the zoo as a child and Tommy smiled.

"That's what Clancy called them. He said they used to be a lot smaller, like around twenty pounds. Now they get to be over a hundred. Mostly they stay in the mountains, but every now and then an old one that can't hunt any more comes around looking for an easy meal. Last time this happened almost a dozen people died."

Nolan traded glances with Irisa, raising his eyebrows questioningly and she frowned and shook her head. "There's no way you're going with your ankle like that."

Tommy came into the room. "What happened, Nolan?"

"Nothing a little rest won't cure," the Irathient snapped. She snatched up her backpack and started stuffing it with water bottles and tinned food.

"Don't forget extra socks," said Nolan mildly. "You know how grumpy you get when your feet are cold." She whipped around and he held up his hands. "Take it easy, kiddo. You got this?"

"Sure, why not? You taught me how to track. If someone was just attacked, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up the trail."

Nolan looked seriously at Tommy. "You watch her back, you hear me?"

The deputy swallowed hard. "Yes, sir."

"All right, then." Nolan held out his arms to Irisa. "Come here." She went to him, hugging him fiercely, and he grinned. "If I go downstairs…" She stiffened and he finished with a twinkle in his eye. "It'll be because the place caught on fire."

"You're an idiot."

"I know." Nolan tightened his arms around his girl. "Be careful."


	3. Chapter 3

Tommy pulled up to the mine entrance and got out of the roller, noting that Doc Yewll was already there. He headed for her, Irisa right behind him, and the Indogene regarded them sourly. "If you're going to ask me how the victim is doing, I don't know. He was carried off."

The deputy's jaw tightened. "How long ago?"

The mine foreman stepped forward. "At least an hour."

"He's probably dead," said Irisa impatiently. "We should start tracking while the light is still good, before somebody else gets killed."

There was an angry hum from the miners and Tommy said hastily, "She's got a point. We're not going to do any good standing around feeling sorry for the guy. We need to get started."

The foreman beckoned to his crew. "We're all ready to go."

Irisa shook her head as Rafe McCawley drove up and hurried over. "We can't track a big cat with a whole bunch of miners along. We'll have a better chance alone."

A female miner with curly dark hair strode up to Irisa. "Listen, you little Irath…"

"Is there a problem?" asked Rafe.

The woman glared at Irisa but said sullenly, "No, sir, no problem."

"What do you think, Tommy?"

The deputy considered. "Well, Mr. McCawley, you remember the last time." The mine owner nodded and Tommy went on. "Two of the casualties weren't from the bobcat-they were from trigger happy hunters. I think I'd feel safer if it was just Irisa and me. We can move faster and quieter and we don't have to worry about stray bullets."

The woman miner seemed about to say something and Rafe held up a hand. "I think that makes a lot of sense, Tommy. Where's Nolan?"

"The Lawkeeper had an unfortunate accident," said Yewll. "He won't be going on any excursions for a while."

"We've got this, Mr. McCawley. At least give us twenty-four hours before sending out more people."

The older man nodded. "All right, you'll have your chance." He raised his voice. "Meanwhile, I want everybody to stick close to the mines. And I'll need a couple of volunteers for sentries."


	4. Chapter 4

_I am not a big game hunter. However, my depiction of hunting a man-eating cat is an accurate one, as my source is James Corbett, a British officer who hunted man-eating tigers and leopards for the Indian government for thirty years. Mr Corbett wrote about his experiences in __**Man-Eaters of Kumaon, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, **__and __**The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon.**__ I am deeply indebted to Mr Corbett for the information which helped make Tommy and Irisa's hunt more realistic._

The landscape Tommy and Irisa walked through would probably always seem strange to someone like Nolan who remembered the world before the Arkfall, but there was a weird beauty to it. The starkness of the mountains was softened as they melted into the distance and the plants which had not evolved over eons still presented colors and shapes pleasing to the eye. The air was fragrant with flowers that had been changed by technology but still attracted bees, themselves of a different form than the familiar insect but still producing honey. The very creatures flying overhead-one couldn't think of them as birds in the traditional sense-had all the grace as they swooped and soared of the avians that had disappeared forever. The only thing that hadn't changed was the sky, clouds drifting on the wind and dappling the ground with shadows as they cut off and revealed the sun.

The two deputies saw none of it. Intent on the trail they were following, they moved rapidly until it suddenly disappeared and Irisa squatted down, scanning the ground with puzzlement. "We have a clear drag mark this far…now there's this flattened patch of grass…" She mused half-aloud as Tommy peered over her shoulder.

"It looks like the cat shifted its grip," said the young man. "It started out holding the victim by the throat-that's why there's no blood and such a heavy drag." He pointed at some drops of blood. "It dropped the man here, then picked him up by the small of his back and carried him that way."

Irisa studied the ground again. "I see it now. There's a very faint drag…it's not going to be easy to follow." She stood up and frowned. "And the light's going. We're going to have to camp and start again in the morning."

"Great. There isn't a sizeable tree for over a mile." The Irathient looked at him questioningly and Tommy smiled ruefully. "The last time this happened, Clancy and me wound up staying out almost a week before we got the cat. That first night, we camped on the ground. Big mistake. We jumped at every noise, every shadow-I bet we saw a hundred bobcats coming for us and none of them real…After that, we slept in trees."

"Bobcats can't climb trees?"

"They can," said Tommy judiciously, "but a cat would find it very hard to climb up a tree without us hearing it."

"So we find a tree." Irisa gathered some rocks and made a small pile to mark the spot. Tommy nodded approvingly and they set off again, walking almost two miles before coming across a suitable tree.

"This ought to do." Tommy pointed to a large crotch where the trunk divided about twenty feet off the ground. "It won't be very comfortable, but we can sleep there tonight." He rummaged in his backpack. "I don't know about you but I'm starving." He opened a can and started to eat the contents cold and Irisa wrinkled her nose.

"What about a fire?"

Tommy shook his head. "These cats get real unpredictable when they turn man-eater. A fire is just as likely to draw the cat as scare it away and I don't want to do either with the light going."

They ate in silence, then climbed into the tree, settling down as best they could and trying to get comfortable as the sun set. Tommy opened a flask and offered it to Irisa. "Drink?"

"What is it?"

"Whisky." The Irathient shook her head and Tommy shrugged. "Okay, but it's starting to get cold. This isn't much of a substitute for a fire but it'll help keep you warm."

"I don't drink."

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "Ever?"

"Ever." Irisa turned her shoulder on the deputy. "I'm going to sleep." She closed her eyes, thinking about the one time she had tried drinking, four years ago…


End file.
